• Does your work require IRB approvals? If Yes, articulate your detailed IRB strategy. If No, explain why you don’t need IRB approval and identify situations when you might need IRB approval.
  • We do not need IRB approval. Our project in Sierra Leone is currently only focused on being able to produce mushrooms and then increasing the scaling of our operation afterwards. With this, our only human interactions would be with our workers or when asking for supplies. Our planned research papers for the near future involve a summary of possible ways we will try to scale our operation, as well as a detailed report of how we can produce second-generation grain spawn. None of what we are doing involves collecting and recording information from people and therefore would not qualify for IRB approval. However, some instances that we possibly could need IRB approval are if we are observing how individual families in Sierra Leone incorporate mushrooms into their diets. Also, we would need IRB approval if we are collecting records from hospitals several years after the mushroom production systems were successful to see whether or not the number of malnourished people decreased.

• Develop an outline for your mid-semester presentations. What supporting evidence will you provide for each point? How will you boost your credibility every step of the way?

• • Explain the problem from a macro perspective
    • We are fighting malnutrition in Sierra Leone by producing mushrooms
  • Explain the problem from a micro perspective
    • Child hospitalization and mortality due to malnutrition is extremely high in Sierra Leone as well as the percentage of youth with stunted growth
  • Explain the approach and how the solution should work
    • The large scale allows mushrooms to be sold for cheaper prices
    • Mushrooms are a source of nutrition that can be easily accessible from a physical as well as monetary standpoint
    • Mushrooms can be integrated into everyday meals
  • Project’s effect on larger/external systems
    • We rely on the local Makeni market to sell our mushrooms
    • We hope to reach the global market as well when we can scale enough
  • Discuss the results of our research
    • We can reliably produce mushrooms in Sierra Leone with our current procedure
  • Identify the challenges and plans to address them
    • Scaling — large substrate buckets, underground grow holes, shelves of substrate
    • Sustainability — many larger scaling solution can eliminate the non-reusable plastic grow bags
  •  How will you increase your credibility every step of the way?
    • By specifically naming companies that we worked with and validating our production process to the audience.
    • We are working with World Hope International and Jawara to make mushroom production possible in Sierra Leone.
  • Listing feasible numbers of produced mushrooms throughout the venture and other numbers associated with the production system.
    • We aim to have a specific amount of mushrooms produced per week by the end of this semester. We will also list the number of grow bags, the amount of substrate and the amount of mycelium we used.
  • By running everyone through our productions process
  • By defining every term that a regular person would not understand
    • Words like mycelium and inoculation.
  • By differentiating what makes our process better than what others are doing to produce mushrooms.
    • We would present the advantages of our systems as opposed to other systems trying to grow mushrooms.
  • By having clear visuals and specific graphs that people can read
    • We would indicate how our production system works by having pictures taken by us.

1. List 10 things that make you feel human
   1. Listening to music. 
   2. Caring about not just myself but people whom I value in my life.
   3. Smiling at people.
   4. Not being able to get good pictures on a photo shoot because of weather conditions.
   5. Isolating myself from everyone and everything sometimes to go and relax.
   6. Sleeping until I feel energized.
   7. Making someone smile because of something I did.
   8. Expressing my thoughts to others.
   9. Hearing the revving of a V-8 engine. This elucidates a feeling of excitement.
   10. Being late to my morning classes.
   11. Getting a low grade on a test that I prepared for.
2. Articulate your philosophy of engagement as it pertains to your work with the GSIF/LVSIF.
   1. 1. I am engaging because I firsthand witnessed the effects of malnutrition on people when I used to live in Bangladesh. Furthermore, I saw similar things in poor communities of the Bella Vista region of Ecuador when I visited for a service trip. The consequences of undernourishment often included poor eyesight and weak immunity in children who would constantly stay sick. It felt awful to see impoverished little children and I knew then that I wanted to do something meaningful to change their lives in similar low and middle-income countries. So, I want to engage because I want to contribute to eliminating malnutrition in Sierra Leone through our mushroom production systems. I must engage by first learning about the entire process of growing mushrooms effectively. Furthermore, I must have a basic knowledge of the cultures and what people live by in Sierra Leone before I can engage in social work with the community there. I want to engage with local families of the Makeni region and ask them about their meals and what they consist of. Moreover, I want to try and teach them the value that mushrooms can bring to their diets. However, I know that this will be challenging because I cannot all of a sudden change the way people in Sierra Leone eat within a few weeks. Other challenges that I might face is not finding the proper materials that I might need to grow mushrooms since they are quite specific as to where they grow. Also, I never met the people of Sierra Leone and I am not sure how approachable they might be especially towards people from the west. They might not like sharing with strangers something as personal as their diets. But, I know that there will be opportunities for me to teach them about the benefits of mushrooms and hopefully, this will convince them to add something a bit more nutritious in their diets.
3. What might my epitaph read?
   1. My epitaph would read “The world’s a stage. Everyone on that stage has a purpose. I was never perfect. I was weird, and I danced on that stage until everyone on it knew my name. I fulfilled my purpose and now I am a silent spectator.”

1. Based on your life experience,  skills and interest, what would be a design process that would be both uniquely yours and effective look like?
   1. David
      1. Meet with group members (if multiple)
      2. Clarify question/problem
      3. Identify solutions
      4. Debate on which solutions to pursue
      5. Design chosen solution
      6. Implement solutions
      7. Evaluate successes and shortcomings of solutions
      8. Redesign solutions if necessary
   2. Asgar: Designing a photo as a photographer
      1. Plan out a photo shoot and the composition of the picture during the shoot
      2. Test out various settings to adjust to the environment and the type of vibe I am going for.
      3. Take a few shots with a setting and readjust compositions, angles, aperture, ISO, and shutter speed as needed.
      4. Import and store the images on hard drive to start the editing process.
      5. On Adobe Lightroom, import to the desired folder and quickly sort through the images by either flagging them or rejecting them.
      6. Then, edit the flagged ones with specific presets to create certain moods and rate them from one star to five stars with five stars being the best.
      7. Export starred photos and share with others.

1. Identify your three most important stakeholders and list five UNIQUE attributes for each one of them.
   1. Local markets in Makeni 
      1. No mushroom competition in local markets
      2. Accessible to many people in Makeni
      3. Possess the need for food products to sell
      4. Has the means to buy our mushrooms in bulk so we can turn a profit and reinvest in ourselves
      5. Since the markets are relatively close, this would reduce the chances of the mushrooms being contaminated.
   2. World Hope International
      1. Provides us with funding for our project in Sierra Leone
      2. Provides us with housing in Sierra Leone
      3. Provides us with transportation in Sierra Leone
      4. Provides us with connections to people in Sierra Leone that can aid our venture
      5. Provides us with a platform to present our ideas and ventures
   3. Jawara (Employee)
      1. He has a degree in agricultural technologies from a local university in Sierra Leone and is the person who understands how to effectively grow mushrooms.
      2. He can communicate well with us and the people of Sierra Leon.
      3. He can help us get different products to experiment with when we are there.
      4. We have a symbiotic relationship with him because we pay him to do work and he helps us with our venture.
      5. Understands the culture of Sierra Leone and can offer us guidance in our interactions

1. Identify three ways in which you will validate your project concept, technology, usability, and business model. 
   1. Usability — how many kilograms of our mushrooms are bought by the markets will gauge how well mushrooms integrate into the culture of Sierra Leone
   2. Business model — the amount of money we receive from the markets that we can reinvest into our venture.
   3. Project concept — reduction in the percentage of children in Makeni hospitalized for malnutrition.

1. Give three examples of something very interesting you learned from a friend that was a completely alien concept to you. 
   1. Asgar
      1. Photography using an actual camera was brand new to me when I first picked up my brother’s DSLR camera. I would go out and explore different areas of our town with my best friend and he would teach me how to use the camera. Every week, we would go out and explore different shooting techniques and eventually I got the basic concepts down. I would still shoot in automatic mode because I did not want to miss the chance to capture the perfect shot by changing the settings manually. However, my friend told me to use manual mode whenever I could just so I would have a better understanding of which settings to use under specific conditions. After a lot of practice, I have become knowledgeable and now, I almost always shoot in manual mode to add my unique style to the pictures I take.
      2. Coding is another concept that I learned from a friend. Initially, I would not understand anything when I would try to code by myself. However, when a friend explained how everything works, it sort of started clicking. Now, I understand the basics of Matlab and I look forward to improving my skills.
      3. Something else that I learned from friends here at Lehigh is how to play volleyball. I was always interested in playing volleyball but never had the chance to play because I did not know the rules. However, now that I know the basics of the sport, I enjoy playing it occasionally with my friends.

1. List the top 20 questions your team needs to answer to advance the venture forward. Categorize the questions if necessary.

• Sustainability/Standard Process
  • How do we make it so that the system is sustainable? 
  • How do we standardize the process of growing mushrooms?
  • What materials can we use for the grow bags that would be most sustainable?
  • What can we do to improve our systems?
  • What can we do with the systems of production so more people are impacted by it?
  • Are we more focused on being environmentally friendly or producing a profit for the people of Sierra Leone?
• People of Sierra Leone
  • Who can we rely on to overlook the projects in Sierra Leone?
  • How do we get the people of Sierra Leone involved?
  • Are the people of Sierra Leone willing to help us out?
  • Why would they find value in mushrooms as opposed to something else?
  • How can we impact more lives?
  • What skills do people in Sierra Leone have that we can benefit from?
  • How can we get more people to invest into our production system?
  • What can we do to see problems from the viewpoint of people in Sierra leone?
  • What can we do better to communicate with the people of Sierra Leone?
• Growing mushrooms
  • What can we use for the substrate that is readily available in Sierra Leone?
  • When would be the best time to grow/sell mushrooms for profit?
  • Are we more focused on profit or nutrition?
  • What can we do to make mushrooms a reliable source of income?
  • What is the most effective way to distribute mushrooms throughout the country?

        2. Develop and Visualize the Theory of Change (Logic Model) for your venture.

• Outcomes
  • Local food security in Sierra Leone
  • Increase nourishment in the children of Sierra Leone
  • Reduced stunting of growth in the children of Sierra Leone
• Outputs
  • 100 kilograms of mushrooms produced per 2-3 week cycle
  • Reduced number of children in hospitals for undernourishment
  • Increased height and weight of the children of Sierra Leone
• Inputs
  • Time put into research and development
  • Money invested as well as produced through mushroom production
• Impacts
  • Increase in net GDP
  • Change in hospitalized children for malnourishment
• Stakeholders
  • Selling markets
  • World Hope international

• Give three compelling examples of how cultural issues affect your project.

Sierra Leone being a low resource country has cultures that are not quite the same as we often witness here in the United States. Due to this variation in customs, it is understandable that we will face some difficulties with sustaining the mushroom production systems in the West African country. Three prime examples of cultural issues that may impact our project to some extent are the language barrier, the people’s lack of agricultural knowledge, and the ease with how they accept our systems of mushroom production. Firstly, it might be slightly difficult for us to communicate with the people of Sierra Leone because not all of them can understand English. Therefore, to explain and educate them about our mushroom production systems, we would need people that can thoroughly comprehend the English language to be able to spread the knowledge of how beneficial mushrooms are.

Secondly, because the general public of Sierra Leone is unaware of common agricultural practices, we would need to teach them how to properly grow mushrooms since it is a very delicate process. This is mainly the impact of British colonialism since the British used Sierra Leone primarily to extract diamonds and other useful valuable minerals while growing crops in surrounding countries like Ghana. The agricultural sector is additionally constrained by several factors including lack of improved inputs, labor shortages, and post-harvest losses. Land degradation and deforestation have resulted in declining soil fertility, which in turn has undermined sustainable agricultural development in the country (USAID). Our project would be something that would contribute to providing food security in Sierra Leone since the country has a suitable environment for growing mushrooms.

Also, from what I have heard so far, the people of Sierra Leon are very direct. This means that we would need to know precisely what we are talking about or else there is a great chance that the people would be confused. Lastly, they might be reluctant to accept foreign ideas from us since we would seem like saviors. We would want to come off as a group of people who are genuinely interested in helping them at our own will. Through the mushroom production systems, we want to aid the people of Sierra Leone to a brighter future where the concept of malnutrition would not exist.

• Have you experienced or observed any of these social situations at home? Describe at least three such situations.

Since America is a huge melting pot of cultures, naturally there are some issues similar to the ones in Sierra Leone that overlap. The language barrier is something many immigrants face here regularly. I faced this barrier when I first came to America at the age of eight. I would sit in my second-grade classroom simply observing everything without being able to insert my input. It was quite a difficult time because not being able to understand what is going on around you when you are surrounded by unfamiliar faces is not a good experience. I believe that this is still a common phenomenon that a lot of people that immigrated to America at a young age face. I also think that this issue is bound to stay as long as the immigration policy of this country does not change.

I do not think that the majority of the people here are completely unaware of agricultural practices here. However, there are probably people who are oblivious to how nutritious mushrooms are. Growing up, my twin sister would never eat mushrooms at home because she would say that they are fungi and are disgusting. Even to this day, she does not touch mushrooms even though she knows that they are very nutritious. I believe that there are still people here that do not understand how beneficial mushrooms are. So, it is essential to educate them about the benefits of eating mushrooms.

People here generally tend to be very direct. However, there are exceptions to this just as there are exceptions to anything.

• Give three examples of cultural practices that can be leveraged to address community/market problems.

One example of how a cultural practice can be leveraged to address community problems is through music. On average, people spend around 18 hours a week listening to music (IFPI’s New Report). If this is the case, then why not use music to educate people about cultural issues? This has already been done in the past and was quite influential. Kendric Lamar has won the Pulitzer Prize for capturing racial issues in America through his album Damn (NPR). If more artists join the initiative to educate people on issues like global warming, race, and other societal problems, it would certainly benefit everyone.

Plastic bags remain a hazardous material that is unfortunately still in use today in a lot of states. They are to blame for many environmental problems. For example, they get into the soil and slowly release toxic chemicals. They eventually break down into the soil, with the unfortunate result being that animals eat them and often choke and die. Not only do they clog up sewer systems, but some of them end up traveling to bodies of water and end up killing marine life. So, the usage of plastic bags must be stopped. One way to leverage this problem is to repurpose plastic bags to make something better. For example, Adidas partnered with Parley for the Oceans, a global network of creators, thinkers, and leaders from brands, governments and environmental groups who come together “to raise awareness for the beauty and fragility of the oceans and collaborate on projects that can end their destruction by reusing the waste plastic” (Adidas). Collaborations between big companies and smaller environmental companies might be the way to save our planet from its current state.

Malnutrition and starvation have become a sort of culture in low resource countries. It is vital to develop sustainable agricultural techniques that will help eliminate malnutrition in Sierra Leone. This can essentially be done by helping the locals learn about effective ways of growing and distributing energy-rich food like mushrooms. It is our goal to essentially put an end to hunger and undernourishment in Sierra Leone through our mushroom production systems.

Works Cited

“Agriculture and Food Security: Sierra Leone.” U.S. Agency for International Development, 21 Nov. 2019, www.usaid.gov/sierra-leone/agriculture-and-food-security.

Flanagan, Andrew. “Kendrick Lamar’s ‘DAMN.’ Wins Historic Pulitzer Prize In Music.” NPR, NPR, 16 Apr. 2018, www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2018/04/16/602948758/kendrick-lamars-damn-wins-historic-pulitzer-prize-in-music.

“Music Listening in 2019: 10 Takeaways from the IFPI’s New Report.” Music Listening in 2019: 10 Takeaways from the IFPI’s New Report, musically.com/2019/09/24/music-listening-2019-ifpi-report/.

“Parley Ocean Plastic.” Adidas News Site | Press Resources for All Brands, Sports and Innovations, 3 Oct. 2018, news.adidas.com/parley-ocean-plastic.